Friday Night SmackDown ranked second among all network programming on Friday with the show highlighted by a face-to-face segment involving Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins.
This past Friday’s episode averaged 2,174,000 viewers and approximately 732,000 (0.56) in the 18-49 demographic, according to Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily.
The figures were on par with the week prior with a slight decline of 3 percent in the key demo and a drop of 4 percent in overall viewers. SmackDown was second behind ABC’s Shark Tank among all network programming. SmackDown finished first in the 18-34 demo with 247,000 viewers (0.35).
SmackDown aired head-to-head with the early NBA game on ESPN between the Golden State Warriors and Chicago Bulls that finished second among cable programs with 1,550,000 viewers and 0.46 in 18-49.
The show included an appearance by Raw performer Seth Rollins during a face-to-face segment with Universal champion Roman Reigns prior to their Royal Rumble match later this month. They also advertised an appearance by Lita, who will be participating in the women’s Royal Rumble match.
In Canada, SmackDown averaged 178,500 viewers and 84,900 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360 and was the second most-watched sports broadcast in the county on Friday. It was only behind the Toronto Raptors vs. Detroit Pistons among sports programming that day.
